$2,000 stolen from Norwalk woman's checking account

You hear about it all the time. But like most people, one Norwalk woman never thought it could happen to her.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, had $2,000 taken from her checking account and fears she will never see that money again. And there is no guarantee more money won't come up missing.

"I'm sure we haven't hit the tip of the iceberg," she said.

"The first indication we had, and I didn't take it seriously, is we had our mail diverted and we didn't divert it," she said.

The woman said it only lasted five days so they never thought anything was suspicious. If fact, it was their mailman who let them know about the situation.

"A couple of days later I called the post office," she said. "He (the man at the post office) said, 'Ma'am, this isn't our problem. You have to call fraud.' I called the fraud department and the woman I got said that can't happen. She said you have to stop the mail. She said it can't be done by somebody else.

"We don't think we lost any mail. The postman brought the stopped mail. The postman said it was the weirdest thing. ... When I called them they made me feel like an idiot. He told me it wasn't their problem."

This woman said somebody got their information and was able to tap into their checking account.

"Friday (June 7) in my checking account there was a $2,000 withdrawal," she said. "They said it was an account your husband set up. I called the fraud department at Key Bank. The woman said somebody came in with every piece of his information correct.

"The phone number on that account was the same phone number on the request to stop the mail."

The bad thing, the woman said, is customers' checking accounts are not protected like their savings or your credit cards. She does have identity theft insurance, but that only covers the expenses occurred going through the process or clearing up your credit records and not the lost money.

"The big thing I learned is look at your stuff and take everything seriously," she said. "I just think it could have been a lot worse. What I have been doing is looking at my charges every day. I can see every gasoline purchase we have made. The lady at the bank has been very helpful. The credit card people have been very helpful."

"As far as we know at this point it is $2,000. What we don't know is any charges on our credit cards. This started in April.

"It is a lot of aggravation."

She went to the police and found out she wasn't alone.

"The cop told me this is happening weekly right now," she said.

"Anybody who works with your information has the potential to get all of your money."